Perron isn't really that gritty and is even more gun-shy now that he's gotten his dome rocked. Really does well in tight spaces because of his excellent hands in close, his ability to use the area between a defending players' skates and stick is terrific. His skating is not stellar - rather choppy, heavy-footed, so he has some trouble really utilizing open space.

Saw Damien Brunner tonight from the fifth row. First time I've seen him live, just preseason, but I wasn't impressed. A little more Ville Leino than I like, but it's just preseason. The Devils were playing back-to-back games with fringe NHLers. The Flyers had their first game in a week with a full NHL lineup.

St Louis is losing a player who could score from in close. Paajarvi ain't that. Morrow will do them well. I might just pick them this year to win the West.

Brunner, soft euro A strange team over there in Debbie land. I get the feeling they're going to be bottom-dwellers for years. Their finals appearance was the last hurrah of an era. Though maybe patching together UFAs will give them a boost like it did with FLA 2 years ago. But it doesn't seem like they've got much in the pipeline. And signing all these UFAs will only delay that rebuild...

These players live on the boards. The Devils have a strong puck possession system with a mean cycling game. Elias is still a master of everything, Zajac is really good on the boards and a great playmaker to find Brunner who adds some speed and skill. Clowe can't do anything but play on the wall, Henrique - like Zajac - can get off the wall and dish, Michael Ryder is one of the best pure snipers in the league and is a load to handle on the boards as well. Zubrus we all know is a utility board player at 6'5", Loktionov might just beat out Jacob Josefson (he looked awful last night again) and then Jagr we know is a possession monster even if he's not an every day player anymore. And then the super grinders on the bottom rung.

This isn't unlike the team from the past couple seasons (one brick out, one Finals appearance)...they'll just stick the puck to the wall and eat it, periodically Ryder will emerge and snipe. Just like Kovy did (obviously, Ryder is far less dynamic). Marek Zidlicky (easily the best player on the rink last night for either club) can do a lot of puck lugging still and can spark transition hockey. Otherwise, they stick it to the wall, d-men still don't get involved on the cycle, if they get it, they shoot (usually far-side low), puck support, retrieval, cycle, repeat. In a short shift game, many teams will be only be able to get back to the red line to dump it in afterwards and then the Devils can go at them again...

I'm not saying it's an impressive group by any means...on paper, they should probably finish about last, but this is where coaching comes into play big time and Pete DeBoer has a team that really fits the style he's going for to a "T" - frankly, I love the cycle, it's my favorite thing to teach and awesome to watch when properly executed, but I'm not exactly a normal hockey fan either...

- Washington's Mikhail Grabovski commenting on Phil Kessel’s self-defence tactic that he used to get away from John Scott who went after the Leafs forward in Sunday’s pre-season game. Scott is 6-foot-8 and weighs 259 pounds.